OT - Summer Reading?

Kreisleriana wrote:

Stephen King has a gift that most writers would -- and do-- envy.

The ability to make millions?

Sorry, couldn't resist. I read several of his novels years ago and got
pretty engrossed in them, so I'm hardly a snob about it. But I would
bet that's one gift many writers do envy!

I'm not always crazy about the uses that King puts his gift to,
but he is a wonderful writer. The envy part is that is comes so easily to
him-- it just flows out of him-- I think that's what makes some literary
people absolutely crazy. Even for writers, writing isn't easy, and most
sweat over every word.

His books are easy to read because they are well-written. I was (and I'm
not proud of this) bored on the subway, and peeking at a fellow passenger's
paperback, saw a really lovely description of a landscape. It was wonderful
prose, and I immediately thought, "Hey, who wrote this?" It was Stephen
King.

He does have a great ability to pull you into a story from page 1. And
not just because of the subject matter (which might or might not intrigue
you), but because of his very easy, comfortable, conversational tone. As
a reader, I always felt like I was sitting down with a group of listeners
for Steve's storytelling hour.

That said, I also always felt like he badly needed an editor. Many of his
descriptions were overloaded with adjectives and metaphors and examples.
When one or two would do, he'd use four or five. But why pay an editor
when people are going to buy his book no matter what?

The best King novel I "read" was an audio book. And not the Books on
Tape kind that record every word faithfully, but a commercial audio book
read by a famous actor. In other words, seriously abridged. What started
out as a 700-page novel, containing everything *including* the kitchen
sink, turned out to be a very tight story on tape.

In the end I got tired of reading his stuff because although the books
were fascinating at the start, I found his endings to be a let-down.
Somehow the monster in your imagination is weirder and more scary than
anything he could come up with. That's why my favorite King story is a
short story called "The Mist" - you never find out what's really happening.
You don't know what caused it, you don't know how far-reaching it is, and
you don't know if it ever gets resolved. I'm sure that no explanation or
resolution could ever be as good.

--
Joyce

To email me, remove the triple-X from my user name. ^..^

Jack Campin - bogus address wrote:

Anybody here planning on spending the hot days of summer inside
in the A/C reading instead of outside sweating?

Currently reading The Memoir of A.C. Aitken, the New Zealand-born
statistician and all-round interesting guy (fought at Gallipoli,
excellent musician, given to mystical experiences and occasional
mental breakdowns).

[snip long list]

I really envy people who can read fast, and can fit lots of books into
a short period of time. I have always been a very slow reader, don't
know why. I don't have any learning disabilities, that I know of. I did
fine in school, in college I did quite well. So it's not due to lack of
intelligence either. I just have never been able to bring up my reading
speed.

This actually has some ramifications on how much I can accomplish in
terms of learning and keeping up with stuff. Example - I usually don't
finish books, because most of the time, I borrow them from the library.
My library allows 3 weeks for the average book, and you can renew
each book once, so that's 6 weeks. This is usually not enough time for
me and I have to either return it unfinished or pay a fine. As I said,
I did very well in college, but I also studied very, very hard. I barely
had a social life for those years because I spent so much time studying.
Probably because it took me longer than the average person to read the
required material.

I know people who read 10 blogs before breakfast every day. If I tried
to do that, I'd be having breakfast at sunset, and this is summertime.
How do people do it?? I feel like I miss out on a lot because of this.

--
Joyce

wrote in message
...
Jack Campin - bogus address wrote:

Anybody here planning on spending the hot days of summer inside
in the A/C reading instead of outside sweating?

Currently reading The Memoir of A.C. Aitken, the New Zealand-born
statistician and all-round interesting guy (fought at Gallipoli,
excellent musician, given to mystical experiences and occasional
mental breakdowns).

[snip long list]

I really envy people who can read fast, and can fit lots of books into
a short period of time. I have always been a very slow reader, don't
know why. I don't have any learning disabilities, that I know of. I did
fine in school, in college I did quite well. So it's not due to lack of
intelligence either. I just have never been able to bring up my reading
speed.

This actually has some ramifications on how much I can accomplish in
terms of learning and keeping up with stuff. Example - I usually don't
finish books, because most of the time, I borrow them from the library.
My library allows 3 weeks for the average book, and you can renew
each book once, so that's 6 weeks. This is usually not enough time for
me and I have to either return it unfinished or pay a fine. As I said,
I did very well in college, but I also studied very, very hard. I barely
had a social life for those years because I spent so much time studying.
Probably because it took me longer than the average person to read the
required material.

I know people who read 10 blogs before breakfast every day. If I tried
to do that, I'd be having breakfast at sunset, and this is summertime.
How do people do it?? I feel like I miss out on a lot because of this.

--
Joyce


You're probably younger than me so this might not be the case for you...
When I was growing up they taught us to read by looking at an entire line of
text rather than reading each individual word. My mind was trained to see a
whole line at the time and interpret it, so I just go down a page by looking
at it a line at a time instead of a word at a time. This does have one
drawback - my mind tends to interpret the text in terms of things that are
familiar to me, so textbooks on subjects I'm unfamiliar with or old English
novels with outdated verbiage will often be misread and I have to go back
over it again. However, for normal reading, it's works quite well.

The way they taught us was to take a piece of paper with a hole cut out that
fit one line at a time and advance it down the page line by line, spending
only a second or two on each line. With enough practice your mind learns
how to see the whole line instead of looking at each word.

Hugs,


CatNipped

wrote in message
...
Jack Campin - bogus address wrote:

Anybody here planning on spending the hot days of summer inside
in the A/C reading instead of outside sweating?

Currently reading The Memoir of A.C. Aitken, the New Zealand-born
statistician and all-round interesting guy (fought at Gallipoli,
excellent musician, given to mystical experiences and occasional
mental breakdowns).

[snip long list]

I really envy people who can read fast, and can fit lots of books
into
a short period of time. I have always been a very slow reader, don't
know why. I don't have any learning disabilities, that I know of. I
did
fine in school, in college I did quite well. So it's not due to lack
of
intelligence either. I just have never been able to bring up my
reading
speed.

This actually has some ramifications on how much I can accomplish in
terms of learning and keeping up with stuff. Example - I usually
don't
finish books, because most of the time, I borrow them from the
library.
My library allows 3 weeks for the average book, and you can renew
each book once, so that's 6 weeks. This is usually not enough time
for
me and I have to either return it unfinished or pay a fine. As I
said,
I did very well in college, but I also studied very, very hard. I
barely
had a social life for those years because I spent so much time
studying.
Probably because it took me longer than the average person to read
the
required material.

I know people who read 10 blogs before breakfast every day. If I
tried
to do that, I'd be having breakfast at sunset, and this is
summertime.
How do people do it?? I feel like I miss out on a lot because of
this.


Have you ever taken a speed reading class? It can be a really big
help for some people.

Charlie took it when he was in his forties and just loved it.

Might not make you into a superfast reader, but if it helped it would
make some thing so much easier and more enjoyable.

It includes a lot of tools to make reading more focused and organized.

Jo

Jofirey wrote:

Have you ever taken a speed reading class? It can be a really big
help for some people.

I should have mentioned that I did take a speed reading class once, and
it didn't help much. I was able to read faster, but my comprehension went
way down. So as far as I could tell, I was just skimming over the material
instead of really reading faster. Which reminds me of this joke:

"I took a speed reading class, and read War and Peace in 20 minutes.

It's about Russia."

I did take that class a very long time ago, and maybe the teacher wasn't
so great. So it might be worth it to try again. Do you recommend any
particular company?

Might not make you into a superfast reader, but if it helped it would
make some thing so much easier and more enjoyable.

That's all I'd ask for! I don't need to be superfast, but an improvement
on my snail's pace would be great.

--
Joyce

To email me, remove the triple-X from my user name. ^..^

On Wed, 18 Jun 2008 14:29:56 -0500, CatNipped wrote:

wrote in message
...
Jack Campin - bogus address wrote:

Anybody here planning on spending the hot days of summer inside in
the A/C reading instead of outside sweating?

Currently reading The Memoir of A.C. Aitken, the New Zealand-born
statistician and all-round interesting guy (fought at Gallipoli,
excellent musician, given to mystical experiences and occasional
mental breakdowns).

[snip long list]

I really envy people who can read fast, and can fit lots of books into
a short period of time. I have always been a very slow reader, don't
know why. I don't have any learning disabilities, that I know of. I did
fine in school, in college I did quite well. So it's not due to lack of
intelligence either. I just have never been able to bring up my reading
speed.

This actually has some ramifications on how much I can accomplish in
terms of learning and keeping up with stuff. Example - I usually don't
finish books, because most of the time, I borrow them from the library.
My library allows 3 weeks for the average book, and you can renew each
book once, so that's 6 weeks. This is usually not enough time for me
and I have to either return it unfinished or pay a fine. As I said, I
did very well in college, but I also studied very, very hard. I barely
had a social life for those years because I spent so much time
studying. Probably because it took me longer than the average person to
read the required material.

I know people who read 10 blogs before breakfast every day. If I tried
to do that, I'd be having breakfast at sunset, and this is summertime.
How do people do it?? I feel like I miss out on a lot because of
this.

--
Joyce


You're probably younger than me so this might not be the case for you...
When I was growing up they taught us to read by looking at an entire
line of text rather than reading each individual word. My mind was
trained to see a whole line at the time and interpret it, so I just go
down a page by looking at it a line at a time instead of a word at a
time. This does have one drawback - my mind tends to interpret the text
in terms of things that are familiar to me, so textbooks on subjects I'm
unfamiliar with or old English novels with outdated verbiage will often
be misread and I have to go back over it again. However, for normal
reading, it's works quite well.

The way they taught us was to take a piece of paper with a hole cut out
that fit one line at a time and advance it down the page line by line,
spending only a second or two on each line. With enough practice your
mind learns how to see the whole line instead of looking at each word.

A similar technique (although not moving so fast) is also recommended for
people with dyslexia. Apparently the cause of a lot of dyslexia is that,
when the person tries to read a line of text, their focal point tends to
jump up or down at random, meaning that they read some words from lines
above or below what they are trying to read. Limiting what is visible to
one line at a time makes it easier for them to read. I don't know if
their vision also tends to jump left or right; the description I heard
made it sound like it was a vertical displacement only. I have a
dyslexic friend who complains about having the words "move around"; I
haven't persuaded him to try the slotted-mask technique yet.

--
John F. Eldredge --
PGP key available from http://pgp.mit.edu
"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better
than not to think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria

wrote:
I really envy people who can read fast, and can fit lots of books into
a short period of time. I have always been a very slow reader, don't
know why. I don't have any learning disabilities, that I know of. I did
fine in school, in college I did quite well. So it's not due to lack of
intelligence either. I just have never been able to bring up my reading
speed.

I read slwoly, too, but I like to read slow and savour what I read. I
could read fast, and sometimes I have to, but you miss so much of a text
when you read it fast. Besides, editing other people's texts is part of
my job, and I have to read those slowly and carefully not to miss any
mistakes, and I guess that carries over into my 'private' reading.

BTW, I'm currently re-reading The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
It's about the only sf book I've ever liked (except classics like Jules
Verne and H.G. Wells).

--
Marina, Miranda and Caliban. In loving memory of Frank and Nikki.

wrote:
I should have mentioned that I did take a speed reading class once, and
it didn't help much. I was able to read faster, but my comprehension went
way down. So as far as I could tell, I was just skimming over the material
instead of really reading faster. Which reminds me of this joke:

"I took a speed reading class, and read War and Peace in 20 minutes.

It's about Russia."

Exactly my point (see other response).

--
Marina, Miranda and Caliban. In loving memory of Frank and Nikki.

CatNipped wrote:

You're probably younger than me so this might not be the case for you...
When I was growing up they taught us to read by looking at an entire line of
text rather than reading each individual word.

LOL, I was taught to read by looking at one *letter* at a time. This
is what they are now calling "Hooked on Phonics", as though it's a brand
new idea. I think it was a good way to learn, because once I learned
the alphabet, I could sound out words pretty much on my own. (Of course,
this being the English language, it is full of ambiguities with respect
to spelling and pronunciation, but it's still a good skill to have.)

Once I learned a word, I didn't need to sound it out again, of course.
Reading would be incredibly slow if that was necessary!

I never learned via the line-at-a-time method. But that's an interesting
idea for training myself to read each line faster.

--
Joyce

To email me, remove the triple-X from my user name. ^..^

"John F. Eldredge" wrote in message
...

A similar technique (although not moving so fast) is also
recommended for
people with dyslexia. Apparently the cause of a lot of dyslexia is
that,
when the person tries to read a line of text, their focal point
tends to
jump up or down at random, meaning that they read some words from
lines
above or below what they are trying to read. Limiting what is
visible to
one line at a time makes it easier for them to read. I don't know
if
their vision also tends to jump left or right; the description I
heard
made it sound like it was a vertical displacement only. I have a
dyslexic friend who complains about having the words "move around";
I
haven't persuaded him to try the slotted-mask technique yet.


I have a problem with skipping lines, especially if the print in a
book is too small, too closely spaced or just poor quality. My eyes
aren't that great anymore either.

I often use the speed reading technique of putting my hand or a card
under the line I'm reading and sliding it down as I go. You don't
want to know how many of those library book cards with the due date on
them I've lost to that method.

I now much prefer hard cover books to paperback. And large print when
I can get them at the library. They usually aren't much larger that
the regular book, just a special thinner paper. They also tend to be
more available as they try to keep a good selection of current books
and the demand isn't as high for large print books.

Jo